Birthday Cake Ice Cream

“Let them eat cake.” ~ Marie Antoinette

The delicious birthday cupcake from my office... devoured soon after this photo shoot!

Happy Birthday 365 Scoops!

It’s been 4 weeks since my first post and in celebration of this milestone I am making birthday cake  ice cream.

Oh, and it’s my birthday too – a double whammy!!

Cake batter ice cream holds a very special place in my heart. I love Coldstone Creamery’s version of this frozen treat. It was the first flavor of its type that I ever tried, and I was hooked. I knew that I wanted to try and recreate the recipe but could not figure out how they managed to make the ice cream taste exactly like the cake batter. Did they make a cake and break chunks of it into the ice cream? Was there some magic chemical that they put into the ice cream to give it a synthetic cake flavor? (If so, I want nothing to do with this!)

I was baffled until someone mentioned that at Coldstone all they do is pour actual cake batter into the ice cream mixture and viola – the ice cream is made! I had to get my hands on this recipe so I scoured the internet for the best possible recipe. It seemed that everyone was in search of the same thing: Coldstone Creamery’s recipe. Not happening. That’s proprietary information. So, I decided to fuse a few different recipes that were available, and make my own concoction.

For the past few weeks, all my recipes have used a combination of whole milk, half-and-half, and cream (don’t gasp at that, you should have seen what the original recipes called for!). The other night The Husband asked if I would consider making an ice cream with skim milk. I said that I was up for the challenge and would embrace it when the time was right.

Ladies and gentlemen, now is that time!

I have to admit, I was petrified. All the reviews I read said that there was no difference between the cake batter ice cream made with cream, whole milk, or skim milk, but I was still skeptical. Thus far, my ice creams have been really creamy, and I am scared to lose that reputation. But, in honor of my birthday, I decided it was appropriate to take a risk. I have nothing to lose (except a potentially icy and disgusting ice cream, but what the hell!).

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

Adapted from so many online sites it’s practically my own original recipe now :)

Milk, sugar and vanilla mixing together

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup Funfetti cake mix (you can use any flavor you want, but I wanted sprinkles in mine to add to the festivity!)

Method

Heat the milk, sugar and vanilla on the stove top until the sugar dissolves.

Whisk in the cake batter so it is entirely mixed together and devoid of clumps.

Pour the mixture into an airtight container and cool completely in the refrigerator, at least 2 hours or overnight.

When the mixture is completely cooled, pour into the bowl of your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For me, this was 20 minutes. The ice cream was still rather soft once I took it out of the ice cream maker, so be sure to freeze it for approximately 2 hours before serving.

This recipe yielded 3/4 of a quart (which is less than most recipes I’ve made so far, I think that might be because I did not use cream, but that’s merely a hypothesis…)

It’s only fair that I share the below with you before you attempt making this recipe yourself:

Funfetti birthday cake ice cream mixture

• Minor detail # 1: While the Funfetti birthday cake  mixture looked really colorful when going into the ice cream maker, I was dismayed to find that all the sprinkles melted into the ice cream, and completely disappeared when churned. I guess this means that it doesn’t matter what kind of cake mix you use, they’ll all end up the same color!
• Minor detail #2:  This is the sweetest damn ice cream I have ever tried! Holy moly! You  have to understand that me calling something too sweet is akin to the pot calling the kettle black. I. Love. Sweets. We all know that, but this is in an entirely different league! All the reviews online said that this recipe was too sweet, so most people recommended cutting 1/4 cup of sugar out of the recipe, which I did. Next time I might cut even more (though I know I might run the risk of an overly “icy” ice cream due to the lack of sugar).
• Minor detail #3: I recommend that when serving this treat you “dress it up” with rainbow sprinkles to really underscore the “birthday flavor.” Otherwise it’s just any old off white ice cream.

Birthday cake ice cream!!